Title: Chains of the Past
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Greg Sanders/Mike Keppler
Fandom: CSI: Vegas
Rating: PG-13
Table: Emotions, mission_insane
Prompt: 8, Broody
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Greg Sanders or Mike Keppler, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

Greg rolled over in bed, wishing that he could go to sleep, but there were too many thoughts racing through his mind to let him settle down. Most of those thoughts were of Mike, and the dtrange way that his boyfriend had been behaving lately.

Mike was always quiet; he simply wasn't the sort of person who was loud and boisterous about anything. Even when the two of them were alone, he didn't talk a lot. But over the last few days, he'd seemed to draw into himself, closing himself off from everyone.

It wasn't unusual for Mike to be a little standoffish from people he didn't know fairly well, but his lover being that way with him worried Greg. It wasn't that Mike had cut him out, but he felt that they were drifting apart, that there was something Mike was keeping from him.

His boyfriend had been in a brooding state of mind lately, not talking much, seeming distracted whenever Greg had tried to talk to him. And there were some things that he refused to discuss -- like whatever case he was working on at the time.

Greg frowned, staring up at the ceiling and wishing that he could find some kind of clue in the plaster swirls as to why Mike was behaving so strangely. It wasn't like him to go so quiet, to not communicate with him at all, especially after they'd made love.

Was Mike getting tired of him? Did he regret starting this relationship? If that was the problem, then Greg had no idea of what he could do to make things better. He blinked to hold back the tears that rose behind his eyes at the thought; he didn't want to cry over this.

If Mike had decided that it was time to end their all-too-brief relationship, he'd be hurt, but he'd survive. It wouldn't be the first time a lover had made up their minds that they didn't want to be with him any more, that they were ready to move on with their lives.

But he'd been so sure that it wouldn't happen with Mike. He had thought that the two of them would stay together, that they were going to build a life with each other. He didn't want to leave things like this, feeling as though everything between them was only half-finished.

Greg took a deep breath, trying to calm himself, to slow his racing heartbeat and pull himself together. He didn't know why Mike had been so broody lately. Maybe it had nothing to do with their relationship. Maybe it was something to do with his current case. Or .... with his past.

He'd made so many cryptic remarks lately about the past, saying that no matter how fast you ran from the past, it could always run faster and that it would come back to bite you in the ass. Maybe that was why he'd been brooding so much; maybe his past was haunting him.

Greg didn't know much about Mike's past, but whatever was there, he was sure that it couldn't be as bad as Mike apparently thought it was. And no matter what it was that his boyfriend was haunted by, he wasn't going to let it get between the two of them.

Whatever had happened in Mike's past, it wasn't bad enough to split them up. He would stand by Mike and love him, no matter what his past had been like. There was nothing in the world that could turn him away from the man he loved, no matter how bad it might be.

Had he somehow managed to chase Mike away by being too clingy, too needy? Past lovers had told him that he had a tendency to do that, but he'd thought that Mike was different. Mike had seemed to want that clinginess, to thrive on it.

No, that couldn't be it, Greg thought, his frown intensifying. Mike wouldn't back off because of that; he was the kind of guy who would want to talk about it. It wasn't Greg's actions that had made him back away; it had to be something from his past that was bothering him.

Did he think that his relationship with Greg was going to turn out the same way his past love affairs had ended? If that was the case, then Greg knew that he had to find a way to prove to Mike that this was forever; this was for the long haul, for the rest of their lives.

He wasn't going to let Mike's a past, a past that he was largely ignorant of, destroy the future that they were going to build together. He would try his best to beat that past back, to show Mike that what had taken place in the past wasn't going to repeat itself.

Sighing, Greg turned over onto his side, punching his pillow. He wished that he didn't have these kinds of worries on his mind, that he could simply enjoy his relationship with Mike and take things one day at a time. But that didn't seem to be in the cards for them.

It was going to be difficult to keep their relationship quiet until they were ready to tell the rest of the crime lab that they were a couple. Now that Mike was working the day shift, they could date, but it was a lot harder to have time for each other with their differing hours.

Maybe that was what Mike had been so broody about, he thought with a soft sigh. He had said more than once that he didn't really like working the day shift, that he'd been more comfortable when he'd first come here and had been working nights.

But at least this way, when they finally did reveal their relationship to their colleagues, nobody would tell them that they shouldn't be dating. They didn't work together; their paths only crossed at work if Greg was on a double shift and they happened to see each other at the lab.

They would make it work, Greg told himself, keeping his inner voice strong and determined. He would find out why Mike had been brooding so much lately, and they would find a way to make that brooding stop. Together, they could overcome whatever was bothering his boyfriend.

He just hoped that it was only something Mike would torment himself over temporarily, and not some worry that would keep him like this far into the future. Greg didn't want their future to be tainted by the past; he wanted them to start fresh. He wanted to be a new beginning in Mike's life.

When they both had a day off, he was going to talk to Mike about all the brooding he'd been doing lately, Greg told himself firmly. It wasn't a good time to talk when Mike had just gotten off a shift and he was tired, and he himself was just waking up and would have to work that night.

But he would sit his boyfriend down and try to find out what was bothering him. He had to do that; if he didn't, he was going to go insane. The more Mike sank into his brooding, the more Greg was terrified that their relationship was starting to fall apart.

He couldn't let that happen. He loved Mike; he wanted to spend the rest of his life with this man. But Mike had to learn to shrug off the chains of the past before they could have a future, and it seemed that he hadn't figured out quite how to achieve that goal yet.

Mike would figure it out, Greg told himself, trying to bolster his confidence and make himself believe in his own words. And if he didn't, then he'd help his boyfriend along the way. It was the least he could do -- not only for Mike, but for himself, as well.

He had to bring Mike out of that brooding, to find out just what the problem was. Greg couldn't help feeling that if the brooding and soul-searching kept up, Mike might be the one to walk away, and he would be left standing helpless and alone, with his heart broken yet again.

Greg closed his eyes, forcing those disturbing thoughts away from him. He would find a way to free Mike from the chains that held him to the past, he vowed. Somehow, he was going to make sure that the two of them had a future together, no matter what he had to do.

***